In March of 2008 I (Coach Tony) moved to San Francisco to work on the Garmin Connect website for the fitness division of Garmin. It was a very hard decision to move away from Folsom and the wonderful friends I had made, the multi-sport training and racing programs I had become a part of, and the venues I had become so comfortable with. Between moving, starting a new job, and training for the 2008 Ironman Coeur D’Alene, I took a break from coaching altogether. Now that I’m taking a break from the saddle to concentrate on running, and I have become assimilated with my new job and city, the desire (and time) to begin run coaching again (outside of Tony’s ab workouts every Tue-Thur afternoon at the office) is burning bright. On Sunday, November 23rd, I put on a free run clinic / workout at Kezar Stadium for some friends and we all had a blast. I’m not sure exactly when, what day(s) and time, or with whom, but I hope to start administering weekly running workouts at Kezar Stadium in 2009 so stay tuned.

Coach Chi-An is still pursuing her post-graduate degree in exercise physiology at the University of Oregon and will likely be residing in Northern California again as early as Spring 2009. I would be ecstatic to re-unite with my Track Attack partner in crime and coach together in San Francisco, but if she lands back in El Dorado Hills I’m sure there will be a lot of happy people to see her back.

Before moving from Sacramento, we wrote a good chunk of a book aimed at helping runners and coaches put together their own fun yet effective running workouts on the track. We sidelined the project while we both got situated in our new environments, but we have begun working on it again. We also wrote a few magazine articles for Incite Magazine that I will be posting on our blog soon, along with other helpful tips and ponderings on running.

But there is no reason to wait for Chi-An and I to come out of hibernation if you live in the Sacramento area. Total Body Fitness, who gave us our start in coaching, continues to put on the Track Attack style workouts we started in January 2004 at American River College (contact Dan Foster for more information). And if you live in the Folsom / El Dorado Hills area, Rhonda and Joey Figone of Specialized Multisport Training have picked up where we all left off at the Oak Ridge High School track and field. Facility availability changes throughout the year so please join their Yahoo! group to receive updates on workout dates and times.

I hope everyone had a healthy and happy Thanksgiving and wish you all a wonderful Holiday season. Anyone running the California International Marathon? If so, I’ll see you out there! I’ll be at Brew It Up! at 1:30pm after the race…

– Tony Pelosi